2 Meaningless
by A Person Who Likes Comedy
Summary: It had been this way for longer than she liked to admit – ever since the 5th grade, really. Duke would give her roses, and Francine would pretend he meant nothing to her. And that's how it was at first. It was meaningless. DukexFrancine


**Author's note: Hello everybody! Welcome to the third book of the series: 'One Out of a Hundred'! it's very, very late at night and I seriously want to shoot myself in the head at the moment.**

**So, anyway, this is another pairing requested from my younger brother. He told me just to call him 'Axel' or something stupid like that.**

**Rating: T**

**Pairing: FrancinexDuke or as I like to call it… um… Drukecine.**

**Okay, that was lame. Again, it was my brother's idea.**

**Cartoon: Fanboy and Chum chum**

**Third Book of the Series**

**I should put a disclaimer! Okay. I don't own anything.**

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It had been this way for longer than she liked to admit – ever since the 5th grade, really. Duke would give her roses, and Francine would pretend he meant nothing to her. And that's how it was at first.

Innocent games.

Of course, Francine valued the opinions of her girlfriends and, as a result, let him down over and over. But he still gave her roses. And she still told everyone that she thought he was ugly.

Later, when they were in high school, Duke came to Francine looking for a kind of satisfaction his girlfriend couldn't, or wouldn't, provide. She cracked the whip and whispered commands and waited until he left to cry herself to sleep.

And he went back to _her_, that silly, dumb diva who he claimed to love. And she looked for affection in other boys but could never find any.

And that's how it was.

When it came down to it, Francine knew that maybe she should put an end to all this. Because really, things were never going to work out with Duke.

He just used her for the rough kissing he desperately craved. To him, she was the dominant, aggressive woman his girlfriend was incapable of even pretending to be. And she became that woman for him, because she took what she could get from what she wanted, and she wanted him.

The result was that he saw one purpose and one purpose only in her. He couldn't see past their role-playing enough to notice that she was desperately in love with him.

She was so, _so_ in love with him.

And if she were being honest with herself, she'd had a veritable thing for him ever since fourth grade when she told her friends she was only using him.

When she suggested they make that list and put Duke at the top so they could all get free hugs and kisses from him, she was really only doing it so she could date him and not be laughed at.

If it was okay to date him in the eyes of her friends, then she could be happy and popular all at once.

She wanted to have the best of both worlds. And really, she did it for him, too. To give him the confidence he needed. And it worked just fine until Yo messed it up. Francine always _craved_ to forgive her for that, and she did forgive her, mostly. But she couldn't help but accuse Yo for the up-to-date state of her relationship with Duke.

Because when he discovered out that the list was a fraud, that the girls were only using him, and that Francine had initiated the whole thing, he was devastated.

He never truly trusted her again. Francine didn't _really_ think he knew this was the reason why he couldn't trust her, because sometimes he could be pretty dense about this stuff, but she was positive that he subconsciously couldn't move past that event.

And she wanted him to. She really wanted him to.

Because she loved it when he showed up at her doorstep with flowers or candy or, yes, even roses. She loved the way he looked at her when she was dominating him. And she loved those certain afternoons when he stayed afterward to watch TV and eat leftovers together.

They both liked sushi and bad reality shows, and it was perfect. Sometimes, rarely, it felt like they were together in just the way she wanted them to be: happy and perfectly relaxed, like the world didn't exist outside of her bedroom.

But he would always leave eventually, and she would always see him the next day with his girlfriend. The, she would always whisper to a nearby friend about how irritating they were and how unattractive he was. He would always come over again that afternoon after school, and the process would repeat.

Francine didn't know how to stop this monster that was their relationship, if it could even be called such a thing. But she wanted to.

Although she often tried to tell herself that things were fine the way they were, she knew it was all lies.

Things _weren't_ fine.

She wanted him to herself and she wanted him forever. She wrote 'Mrs. Varenpost' on her notebooks in middle school and she still to this day knew she wanted to marry him someday. He was plain looking on any scientific basis, but he was perfect in _her _eyes.

She wanted their kids to have his eyes and her hair and his nose. But she could never tell him any of this, because he told her all the time how much he _loved_ his girlfriend.

But if that were true, why was he still coming to Francine for this gratification?

Once, when they were lying in her bed afterward, and she was on her stomach and he was rubbing her back and they were just looking at each other in silence, she almost told him that she loved him.

Well, she almost did, because she thought she saw in his eyes that he felt the same way. She didn't, though, and the moment was gone, and it hadn't come back since.

Francine knew that This List had ruined her chances with him in the grand scheme of things. It was a poorly conceived plan to have her cake and eat it too, and it broke his trust in her.

Hm… she wasn't sure what she had to do to convince him to trust her and fall in love with her without blatantly saying that those were her intentions.

But at least in some way he did trust her. He trusted her with his body. He would have to, to let her tie him up the way she does. But he didn't trust her with his heart, which was all she really wanted.

The next day came and Duke walked down the hallway with his new girlfriend and Francine leaned from her locker over to whisper malicious things to her friend. He still came to her house that afternoon and she still greeted him with a smile. He still gave her rose and she still pretended he didn't mean anything.

That was the rose.

The one that shattered her heart as tears rolled down her face.

There was no way they weren't meant for each other, after all.

And that's how it was.

**Fin.**

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**Review and rate! Five stars! C'mon… please?**


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